Evaluations of Higham, Scott

This article from the Washington Post, a prestigious and well known newspaper, is interesting, because it portraits how some people are welling to help others, even if they are criminals to be treated fair and to have their human rights.

I added the abstract summary of the article

[Charles Swift] said he and his colleagues were troubled by the commission rules that were being drafted and the indefinite detentions of their clients at Guantanamo Bay. Swift, [Philip Sundel] and three other active- duty military lawyers filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court last January, challenging their commander in chief's orders that suspected al Qaeda terrorists and Taliban fighters could be held without review from the federal court system. This summer the Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo could have access to federal courts, and legal analysts say that ruling extends to those who have been designated to stand trial before the commissions.
In June, the military lawyers complained to two U.S. Senate committees about possible coercion. "It is likely that evidence obtained from prisoners abused while in U.S. custody will be introduced as evidence in these military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, and that neither defense counsel nor the members of the commissions would ever be told about the circumstances under which such evidence was obtained," the lawyers wrote the Senate Armed Services and Judiciary committees.
Critics of the military commissions say the combination of perceived shortcomings in the process will be seen around the world as another sign that the U.S. government believes it can operate under different legal standards. They warn that the indefinite detentions at Guantanamo Bay, coupled with the decision not to apply the Geneva Conventions to certain detainees and the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, could have consequences for the men and women in the U.S. armed forces.